Law Commons^™

How Do You Spell M-U-R-K-O-W-S-K-I? Part I: The Question Of Assistance To The Voter, Chad Flanders

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The 2010 race for the Alaska Senate now seems to be over. After losing in the Republican Party Primary to Tea Party-backed candidate Joe Miller, Senator Lisa Murkowski staged a write-in candidacy and, bucking both U.S. and Alaska history, won the general election. Although much attention has been paid to Miller’s post-election challenges to Murkowski write-in ballots, a major election law question was at issue prior to the election: to what extent can poll workers assist voters who need help in voting for a write-in candidate?

After Murkowski declared her write-in candidacy, the Alaska Division of Elections distributed a list …

The Place Of Competition In American Election Law, In The Marketplace Of Democracy, Nathaniel Persily

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This forthcoming book chapter defines the problem of diminished political competition, describes the relevant legal analogies concerning regulation of economic competition, and explains how the law shapes the competitive environment for elections. It also details how Supreme Court justices have sometimes tried to incorporate competitiveness concerns into their election law decisions in cases concerning ballot access, redistricting, campaign finance, party reform, and term limits. For the most part, constitutional law proves to be both a blunt and a coarse instrument for addressing excesses of partisan greed or self-interest, but justices of varying ideological leanings have invoked such concerns (usually in …

When Judges Carve Democracies: A Primer On Court-Drawn Redistricting Plans, Nathaniel Persily

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This essay presents guidelines for courts that undertake to draw their own redistricting plans. Although several dozen courts over the last four redistricting cycles have drawn their own plans, there is precious little in the case law or secondary sources to provide guidance. As a result, courts vary considerably in the procedures they follow and the substantive factors they take into account in their plans. This essay discusses the unique legal constraints on court-drawn plans and assesses the costs and benefits of following various procedures or substantive redistricting principles. The unique context of each case that spurs judicial involvement will …

Perceptions Of Corruption And Campaign Finance: When Public Opinion Determines Constitutional Law, Nathaniel Persily, Kelli Lammie

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This study tests the empirical assumptions about American public opinion found in the Supreme Court’s opinions concerning campaign finance reform. The area of campaign finance is a unique one in First Amendment law because the Court has allowed the mere appearance of a problem (in this case, “corruption”) to justify the curtailment of recognized First Amendment rights of speech and association. Since Buckley v. Valeo, defendants in campaign finance cases have proffered various types of evidence to support the notion that the public perceives a great deal of corruption produced by the campaign finance system. Most recently, in McConnell v. …

The Hazards Of Legal Fine Tuning: Confronting The Free Will Problem In Election Law Scholarship, Michael A. Fitts

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No abstract provided.